I Love LA! (and other Friday News)

I just want to thank everyone who attended the kick-off of my nationwide Lightroom Tour Live this past Wednesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center (all 800 of you!). I met so many wonderful people, I learned a lot, I saw some old friends and made some new ones. I posted a few photos above (taken by my buddy Dave Moser—you can click on them for a larger view. The top photo was taken during the live bridal shoot that starts the day, then we take those live shots into Lightroom and follow a step-by-step workflow that ends with the final prints coming off an Epson Stylus Pro 3800 right there in the class). Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all for spending the day with me—I really had a blast and greatly appreciate the wonderful support.

The next stop on my Lightroom Tour is at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center on May 21st, but our seating is much more limited than it was in Los Angeles, so if you’d like to join me, sign up today at PhotoshopSeminars.com. I hope to see you in Boston!

Note: I just saw a comment posted here on my blog, with a link to a review of my seminar at ChromaticSoul, written by one of the attendees. Here’s the direct link.

Now for some Friday news:

If you’re into video Podcasts, I was just turned on to one that really speaks to the tech-freak deep inside us all. It’s USA Today’s “Talking Tech.” This free weekly show and is hosted by tech guru Jefferson Graham (who happens to be a Photoshop fan), and Ed Baig, who do a great job of keeping you (us, we, me, etc.) up on all the latest tech gear without getting “tech geeky” at all. What I like best about the show is their format; it’s casual (the current episode was filmed outside an Apple store), fun, and refreshingly “plain English” for a tech show. Plus, their shows are short, sweet, and right to the point. Definitely check it out (you can watch right from within Apple’s iTunes [for PC and Mac], and you can subscribe and get it downloaded weekly for free. Highly recommended. Click here for the link).

Here’s another photo retouching site (this one from Russia), that features before/after retouching shots, and as always I just find these so interesting. It’s great way to see what is being done in retouching, what can be done, and each retoucher definitely has his/her own style, and that makes it all the more interesting. This one’s called Touch of Glamor, and here’s the link.

Last week I mentioned that my Photoshop TV co-host Dave Cross has a Photoshop training class coming up at the Digital Technology Centre in Sarasota, Florida on May 19th, and now my other co-host Matt Kloskowski, is bringing a day of hands-on training on Photoshop Layers for Digital Photographers. These are very intimate classes (which means at some point, Matt will probably take his shirt off), so if you want to attend, follow this link to snag one of the few available seats (these classes are limited to 18 participants), for either Dave or Matt’s workshop. By the way; I’ve taught the Digital Technology Centre, and it is an absolute first-class operation, and they always have the very best instructors (and of course, if you’ve ever caught Dave or Matt live, you know you’re in for something very special from these two gifted Photoshop instructors).

The photography blog “Pixelated Image” (from photographer David duChemin) did a mini-review of my new Lightroom Book, after reading just the first chapter, and although it includes what is certainly not the most flattering comments about my somewhat different sense of humor, he does a great job of really capturing the flavor of the book, and how it’s put together. Follow this link to read it online. While you’re there be sure to check out this wonderful photography here).By the way; he does have a point about my humor—you either like it, or you hate it. Thankfully I get hundreds of very kind letters from people who totally get my sense of humor, but if you don’t like my style of humor, then apparently you really, really, really don’t like it (and generally want to see me dead).Here’s the thing: the whole book does NOT contain this humor; it’s pretty much contained to just two places: (1) The book’s 3-page introduction, and (2) The opening page of each chapter. That’s it. The rest of the book (as I mention in the introduction), is step-by-step (Step One: do this, Step two: do that), so there’s not really a lot of opportunities to inject any other stuff. I do keep it light and conversational, but again; my “stream of consciousness” style of humor (as my Editor and friend Chris Main likes to call it) is pretty much confined to those two places, so out of a 416 page book, it’s three pages for the intro, and then 1 page each for 10 or 11 chapters (so we’re talking 14 pages of fun, 406 pages of Step one, step two, and so on).Now, here’s something else you might find helpful; we know (from publishing so many books), that the vast majority of people skip over a book’s introduction, and jump right to the first chapter. That’s particularly bad for me (and my readers), because that’s where I explain how to use the book, where to download the accompanying practice files, and lots of other stuff that they need to know to make the most of the book. So, to trick people into reading the introduction, I usually disguise it as something else (like, in this book for example, I call it the “Unexpected Q&A Section” so people read it, thinking it’s not the Introduction. Since it’s not step-by-step, I have fun with it, and I do include some, well….off the wall stuff, but along with it, are valuable instructions on how to make the most of the book.

So, yes—in each book I try and trick people into reading my introduction (sometimes referred to as “my non-introduction introductions”), but it’s only to help my readers get more out of the book. Plus, as an author, after you’ve written 402 pages of Step one, Step two, and so on, even I need a break to say something silly, and hopefully make you smile a little while you’re learning. :-)

I found this link on Anne Marie Conception’s excellent “Design Geek” email newsletter, and it’s to a site who has designed a really nice looking set of CS3 replacement icons for you to download. Also on Anne Marie’s newsletter, was a link to a really cool Flash-based graphic showing all the icons for all the new Adobe products, and it’s just so darn cool.You’ve got to check it out (it only takes a moment).

My buddy Terry White’s excellent Tech Blog has moved to new digs: get on board at his new address: terrywhite.com/techblog

About The Author

Scott is the President of KelbyOne, an online educational community for Photographers, Photoshop and Lightroom users. He's editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine, Conference Technical Chair for the Photoshop World Conference & Expo, and the author of a string of bestselling Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography books.

About Me

Scott is the President of KelbyOne, an online educational community for Photographers, Photoshop and Lightroom users. He's editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine, Conference Technical Chair for the Photoshop World Conference & Expo, and the author of a string of bestselling Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography books.